Professor Shengliang Li published in Advanced Materials

Near-infrared optical technology is recognized as an important tool for biomedical research and in vivo imaging due to its unique biological compatibility and high precision. Currently, near-infrared (NIR) imaging has been demonstrated to show better advantages over visible light imaging. In particular, the second near-infrared biowindow (NIR-II, 900-1700 nm) can provide higher quality in vivo biological imaging, which is mainly due to its considerable advancements mainly, including low invasiveness, high sensitivity, non-ionizing radiation, as well as rapid responsiveness. Therefore, the development of higher-brightness near-infrared imaging methods and tools can help precise deciphering of structural bioinformatics in deep-tissues. Even though NIR imaging has advanced significantly in recent years, high-brightness NIR-II fluorescent probes with novel skeletons are still urgently needed.

Recently, Prof. Shengliang Li's group at the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, published a research paper entitled Molecular Programming of NIR-IIb-Emissive Semiconducting Small Molecules for In Vivo High-Contrast Bioimaging Beyond 1500 nm in Advanced Materials. They detailed investigated the atom-programming strategy of NIR-II probes for receiving long wavelength and high-brightness of NIR-IIb in this study. And also, they tried to explore the optical and intrinsic photochemical properties of this class of NIR-II molecular probes, by which high-resolution images of in vivo systemic vasculature, biliary system, and brain vascular dynamics at NIR-IIb wavelength (1000-1700 nm) were successfully realized. Corresponding authors included Prof. Shengliang Li, Prof. Chun-Sing Lee from City University of Hong Kong, and Prof. Jun Qian from Zhejiang University.

Figure 1. NIR-IIb-emissive probe for in vivo high-contrast bioimaging beyond 1500 nm.

In this work, this team developed a series of organic fluorescent probes with high brightness in the NIR-II region in order to achieve high-resolution imaging of the systemic vascular, biliary system, and brain vascular dynamics at NIR-IIb wavelength in order to address the scientific issues in the field of NIR fluorescence imaging and build on the previous foundation of the group. In this work, an A-D-A backbone NIR-IIb fluorescent probe was first created, and it was then further engineered using selenium and fluorine atoms to improve intramolecular charge transfer and narrow the energy level band gap. The highly stable water-soluble NIR-II fluorescent probes were fabricated as nanoparticles that showed highly efficient NIR-II fluorescence, and the wavelength can be extended to 1700 nm. Furthermore, in vivo bioimaging showed that the fluorescent probe can image the bladder-biliary system and the entire body's vasculature with excellent resolution. The probes were also demonstrated to achieve outstanding cerebral angiographic imaging when employed for high-speed imaging of cerebral vasculature and hemodynamics. This work provides a new concept and practical strategy for the design and synthesis of innovative NIR-II organic fluorescent probes for high-resolution bioimaging.

Reference:Yi Yuan, Zhe Feng, Shengliang Li,* Zhongming Huang, Yingpeng Wan, Chen Cao, Sien Lin, Lan Wu, Jing Zhou, Liang-Sheng Liao, Jun Qian,* Chun-Sing Lee* Molecular Programming of NIR-IIb-Emissive Semiconducting Small Molecules for In Vivo High-Contrast Bioimaging Beyond 1500 nm. Adv. Mater., 2022,34, 2201263.

Linker：https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202201263 

Prof. Shengliang Li is a distinguished professor at the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Soochow University and is a principal investigator in the laboratory of Advanced Bio-Photon and Nanomedicine. He has co-authored 90 papers with over 3600 times of citations (H-Index 34) and 3 ESI Highly Cited Paper (ESI 1%). Prof. Shengliang Li holds 4 PCT patent applications and received 4 Chinese patents. He is a Young Editorial Board Member for Chinese Chemical Letters.